Host: Li Daoqiang Realm: Grandmaster Martial Arts: Dragon-Elephant Prajna (Ninth Layer) Talents: Immunity to All Poisons, Battle-Honed Body, Top-Tier Aptitude Bandit Points: 8,000,000
This was the new panel—simple and clear.
The first two lines were straightforward. Behind the third line’s martial arts, only Dragon-Elephant Prajna was displayed; others like Iron Shirt had been hidden.
They weren’t gone, but concealed at Li Daoqiang’s will.
After all, those few post-natal martial arts were useless to him now, just clutter in the way, so he’d simply tucked them away.
The main focus was the fourth line: talents.
Besides Immunity to All Poisons and Battle-Honed Body, a new one had appeared: Top-Tier Aptitude.
A new talent emerging didn’t surprise Li Daoqiang much.
There was a pattern to it.
The question was what this Top-Tier Aptitude did.
Soon, he understood its effect.
It was a talent for cultivation. With it, his cultivation aptitude had instantly risen to the top tier of the world.
How high was that? Easy to grasp—across the land, his cultivation talent was essentially at the highest level.
In other words, when it came to cultivation talent, no one would surpass him by much.
At most, they’d be on the same level, with different focuses.
Generally, cultivation talent had two aspects: one was physical talent.
The other was insight and intellect.
Li Daoqiang’s Top-Tier Aptitude covered both, reaching the pinnacle in a balanced, even way—truly rare in the world.
Understanding this talent, Li Daoqiang was very satisfied.
It couldn’t boost his strength immediately, but it was, so to speak, his foundation.
As the saying goes, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Bandit points were the fish; Top-Tier Aptitude was the fishing.
Of course, the fish of bandit points was enormous—unfathomably so—so Li Daoqiang leaned toward that fish.
But he couldn’t ignore the fishing.
This was the true foundation, the bedrock—a base that would never leave him starving.
With this talent, even without bandit points, he was confident his cultivation speed wouldn’t lag behind anyone’s.
With some diligent training and bandit points combined, his strength would grow even faster.
Curious, he thought about checking how many bandit points it would take to upgrade this talent.
The next moment, his face stiffened.
100,000,000!
Eight zeros after the one—a full hundred million.
That was definitely not something he could aim for now.
These three talents really were each pricier than the last.
The first, upgrading from Immunity to Common Poisons to Immunity to All Poisons, cost one million.
The second, upgrading Battle-Honed Body, cost ten million.
The third, Top-Tier Aptitude, cost a hundred million.
A tenfold progression.
But thinking about these three talents, each was indeed more precious than the last.
Any one of them would be sought by countless people across the world.
Not to mention the corresponding one million, ten million, or hundred million taels of silver.
Even double or ten times that, people would fight to trade for them.
He didn’t dwell on the three talents. Even if he had bandit points, he’d prioritize boosting his strength first; these talents would come later.
So no need to overthink.
He glanced at Dragon-Elephant Prajna again, and his brow twitched.
The tenth layer required twenty-five million taels.
Five times the ninth layer.
Would it keep multiplying by five from here on?
The thought struck him, and Li Daoqiang felt it was highly likely.
He took a deep breath, suppressing a flicker of emotion.
Though it was a lot, compared to the gains, it was worth it—very worth it.
It just made him feel even poorer.
Pushing those thoughts aside, today was a day of great joy; he’d set them aside for now.
A hint of anticipation rose on his face. With a surge of power, his body lifted into the air, flying out of the cave.
If the Xiantian realm allowed brief levitation, then the Grandmaster realm enabled sustained flight.
True flight—from then on, almost nowhere in the world was out of reach.
Of course, this flight still consumed a lot of energy; the higher he flew, the greater the drain.
A thin, golden light film enveloped Li Daoqiang as he sped through the sky.
This feeling of freedom, of looking down on the earth, was wonderful.
After indulging for a while, Li Daoqiang drew various conclusions: this flight’s actual speed was far slower than his straight-line speed on the ground.
And the energy cost was several times higher.
That might also be because he lacked a light-footed technique at this level.
After testing for a bit, he calmed the emotions stirred by breaking through to Grandmaster.
Golden light flared, and he flew straight toward Tianning Temple.
Only after leaving the forest did he land and switch to walking.
In the woods, flying was still more convenient.
With a step, he didn’t use full force, but his figure shot forward instantly.
If an ordinary person were there, even if he passed right before them, they’d notice nothing, only feel a gust of wind.
His straight-line speed was several times faster than before the breakthrough.
In no time, he reached Tianning Temple.
Fresh from his breakthrough, his spirit was high, and he didn’t want to waste a moment.
The twenty-five million bandit points for the tenth layer of Dragon-Elephant Prajna were still waiting for him.
He couldn’t slack off; he had to work harder to earn money.
This time, he didn’t use a big sack. A vast, river-like surge of power wrapped around thirty thousand catties of silver, heading toward Black Dragon Stronghold.
A large golden sphere was conspicuous in the night, but Li Daoqiang no longer cared much.
First, his speed was too fast; ordinary people, even those in the post-natal realm, couldn’t see it.
Second, having reached the Grandmaster realm, he had few concerns left in Jingzhou territory.
Even if something unexpected happened, he was confident he could handle it.
With greater strength, everything became more convenient and faster.
This trip, even with the extra time to wash the silver, took less than half the time before.
One trip brought three hundred thousand taels. Before dawn, Li Daoqiang made over a dozen trips.
On the last one, he finally couldn’t resist bringing back the giant golden Buddha.
After sorting everything, his bandit points stood at around twelve million.
Four million taels of silver gave four million bandit points.
The giant golden Buddha weighed about forty thousand catties, worth eight million bandit points.
With that, aside from the unknown-value precious gems and jewelry, he’d moved almost all the gold and silver from the Liancheng Jue treasure.
The remaining silver was only about four million taels.
All told, from the Liancheng Jue treasure, Li Daoqiang had obtained roughly six hundred thousand taels of gold and nine million taels of silver.
That totaled around twenty-one million bandit points.
It might not seem like much, but Emperor Liang Yuan was a weak ruler, a fallen monarch.
Having this much gold and silver, plus several chests of rare gems and jewelry, was already quite impressive.
Li Daoqiang knew well that in this world, the truly wealthy were never emperors, but the vast merchant clans and financial magnates.
The great powers were their representatives.
If his Black Dragon Stronghold weren’t a bandit den but a righteous sect, with him as a Grandmaster, it would become the representative of Jingzhou’s many merchants, landowners, and noble families.
A region supporting a great power—this wasn’t a joke, but reality.
From top to bottom, layer upon layer of exploitation, supporting upward.
That was the essence of this world.
A day later, Li Daoqiang had completely emptied the Liancheng Jue treasure.
Looking at the secret vault, half-filled with gleaming gold, he smiled, then glanced at the bandit points in the system—around sixteen million.
The smile faded.
Still nine million short!
Nine million—nearly twice the cost of the ninth layer of Dragon-Elephant Prajna.
Not long ago, he’d been fretting over the five million for the ninth layer.
Now, he was immediately worrying about the nine million needed for the tenth.
Humans truly never knew contentment.
Suppressing the faint urgency in his heart, his gaze shifted to the several chests of rare gems and jewelry in the vault.
Those were also valuable, but they’d take time to sell off slowly.
Exactly how much gold and silver they’d convert to, he wasn’t sure.
Closing the vault door, Li Daoqiang returned to Qi Fang’s courtyard and announced his official emergence from seclusion.
It was broad daylight, but Li Daoqiang didn’t care. The moment he saw her, he tightly embraced that soft, fragrant body, inhaling deeply.
Qi Fang blushed a little.
The next second, she gasped softly as her feet left the ground, her body lifted horizontally.
“Chief, it’s daytime,” she whispered, flustered and shy, her face red, glancing anxiously toward the maids.
“I missed you,” Li Daoqiang said tenderly.
He’d never been in love, but hadn’t he seen others in love?
Whether he truly liked her or how much, a few sweet words came easily to him.
Sure enough, hearing that, Qi Fang’s body softened, a rosy flush spreading from her fair, jade-like skin to her swan-like neck.
Li Daoqiang didn’t delay. With a smile, he strode toward the bed.
Finally, after who knew how long, everything calmed.
On the embroidered bed, Li Daoqiang lay with an unusually serene expression, unruffled.
Only a faint pride and confidence flickered in his eyes from time to time.
...
Two days later, rested, Li Daoqiang arranged to slowly start selling the rare gems and jewelry.
At the same time, after some hesitation, he invested six million bandit points into the tenth layer of Dragon-Elephant Prajna.
The tenth layer advanced, boosting his strength a bit, but not by much.
Only when a layer of Dragon-Elephant Prajna was fully cultivated would his power leap.
He kept ten million bandit points in reserve, for emergencies.
Nine million bandit points weren’t easy to come by, so he’d hold onto most, leaving room to adapt based on circumstances.
After reorganizing Black Dragon Stronghold, Li Daoqiang turned his gaze toward Jingzhou City.
His first great general was about to be secured.
(Chapter 1, thanks for the support.)
...